Disrupt Hiring.

I have recently spent a lot of time thinking about how we find our teammates, how we find our own work, and what the effects  of that process are in my work community.  It leaves me with a feeling of dissatisfaction, and a need to reason out a better way of working.  If I could change the way we do “hiring”, I would look at three ideas to experiment with.  Disclaimer: these ideas are framed within the context of Design and Technology, so the applicability of these ideas may not be completely universal. We should consider a system of loaning team members to other organizations when the situation is mutually advantageous, replacing limited interview experiences with a full day of immersive work as a members of a perspective team we expect to form or be part of, and building a clear end result for employment from the moment we join a team or add a member.

Soccer teams in European leagues use a system whereby players are loaned between teams.  This allows for players who might not otherwise see action to gain experience when their playing time is limited.  Could we use a similar system with staff in our own companies?   What if, during periods between projects, or when work feels ‘stale’, a company wanted to farm out a member of their team to another company.  The receiving company would take on the salary responsibility of the employee, who would function as a full-time staff, for the duration of the loan.  The benefit to the loaning organization would be that a staff member would receive new experience that might otherwise not be readily available in their existing position or firm.  For the target organization, the benefit would be an extra person to fill gaps and add knowledge to their team that might be absent.  For both companies, the cross-pollination of ideas, practices, and culture would ideally be a mutually beneficial arrangement that fosters cooperation and innovation.  I can foresee challenges in terms of Intellectual Property and trade secrets – one way to mitigate those concerns is to find ways to vary the industry between companies.

Take a look at the experience of interviewing prospectives. In my experience, interviews are either cursory meetings that give limited visibility into a person’s skills beyond what they articulate, or drawn out engagements consisting of several meetings to discern whether a prospect is a ‘good fit’. Instead of this dance that leads to uncertainty on both sides and an array of cliche questions and interactions, I propose a different model.  Take a whole day and put the interviewee into an immersive experience that engages them fully in the business.  Set them into the environment they would be working in, with the responsibility to contribute and take part in the daily workings of their future team.  Pay them for that day as if they were an independent contractor, and make it count for both parties.  Put skin in the game for everyone right away, to make the decision clear and the rationale behind it apparent.   Everyone is looking for people who ‘hit the ground running’ and can ‘be thrown in the deep end.’  Don’t waste the work of going through the full hiring process to get there.

Both the previous suggestions would work even better with one other component – agreeing on an exit strategy or end point for a prospective employe right from the start.  When joining a team, it should be explicitly made clear to everyone what a person’s exit strategy would be.  Is this job about working until the person has achieved a level of mastery, and is ready to move beyond this group?  Is the person being groomed for a higher role in the organization?  Is this company trying to get bought out, and that is the goal being shot for?  Things may not happen the way it’s initially planned, but the usual tiddly-winking around what our goals are does not need to be abstract as is typically the case.  Any good contractual relationship makes clear at the beginning what the end will look like – as Steven Covey says, “begin with the end in mind.”  (Also, this: http://hbr.org/2013/06/tours-of-duty-the-new-employer-employee-compact)

By sharing staff during slack time, we cross-pollinate between organization and give rise to greater innovative possibilities.  Deeper, more meaningful interview experiences would make the process of seeking employment and adding new team members a true catalyst for building immediate trust and relationships that matter.  Knowing the exit strategy to any employment engagement before starting out would clarify our target and bring immediate accountability to everyone involved in the career process.  Ideas like these would not be easy to implement, but they represent worthwhile experiments to play with, especially in the current market for talent.  They would require a greater commitment both from organizations looking for new team members and those looking to make career moves.  The risk relative to the current status quo in any of these tactics would be more than offset by the benefits of how a positive result would influence the players involved.

One last experiment is the idea of a ‘transfer window’, again derived from how European football is organized.  Imagine a system where one week per quarter was designated as a time for workers to be free to seek alternate employment – that is, it would be openly known as a time for people to look around at other opportunities.  Right now, we look for jobs on the side – out of necessity for the effect it would have on our current workplaces.  Rather than perpetuate a system that leads to unexpected surprises when teammates depart, open the door to times when we know they might. This would hold management more accountable in keeping up standards of leadership, to make staff know that staying put is so desirable as to feel disinclined to seek alternatives during the transfer period.